Kingdom of Darnussia
Kingdom of Darnussia was the first united nation established in the area of modern Darnussia. The King Darntus I was crowned after the bloody War of Narikatonite Succession in 775 and was the only one of the Three Darnussian Nations throughout the history that was under the rule of the Narikatonites. History Birth of the Kingdom The Kingdom was centered around the Island of Narikaton and Merenbürg was named as it's capital as the first act of King Darntus I. Island of Zeeland was also part of the young Kingdom named after it's great leader. At this time the Semitic Narikatonites living at the Islands and Mainland Darnussians were considered different people and uniting the mainland to the Narikatonite-led Kingdom was the first priority of King Darntus I. This egnited the Unification War of Darnussia that was fought between 777-780, ending in a triumphant victory for the new king, Darntus I. The mainland was joined to the Kingdom of Darnussia and the blending of the two people began. Darntus split the country into 4 Grand Duchies, with one Duke in command of a certain area. These new provinces were Duchy of Narikaton, Duchy of Zeeland, Duchy of Alkavon and Duchy of Doressa. He himself was the ruler of the entire Kingdom, but the Dukes had significant power among themselves also. After the tragic death of Darntus I, his son, King Darntus II was crowned as King of Darnussia. Unlike his beloved father, Darntus II was a brutal leader and he was not too fond of Jewish population at the islands. He tried to enslave the Jewish population, which eventually led to his murder. Brief Revolution During the 18th century there was a large uprising that took place all over Darnussia. Darnussia was in a massive famine and the workers were getting angry at the King and the Nobles. This lead to what is now known in Darnussian History as the Brief Revolution. The reason it is called the Brief Revolution is because the workers and the peasants for a brief period time overthrew the monarchy of Darnussia. The revolution was lead by three men who formed a Triumvirate. The three men were Carlo Abruzzi, Aurelio Sasperi, and Moshes Federer. The men declared Darnussia a Republic and declared that every men had individual rights. The Triumvirate passed popular legislation to eliminate burdensome taxes and to give work to the unemployed. The revolution only lasted 345 days because the King with assistance from different countries and mercenaries led an army against the Darnussian Republic and successfully restored order to the Monarchy. After the Brief Revolution the men who formed the Triumvirate were arrested but later released for unknown reasons. End of the Kingdom Even though the Brief Revolution failed, it introduced Republic to the majority of Darnussians and the opposing of the monarchy grew larger in the next century. Kings and Nobles had to make admissions and a House of Commons was created in 1815. The King still held the power in the nation, but the Dukes lost most of their power and influence at the Duchies of Darnussia to the new parliament. The Final king of Darnussia, Cecil I, well known homosexual, finally abolished the Monarchy which was the end of Kingdom of Darnussia in 1966. Parliament became the ruling body of the nation and Most Serene Republic of Darnussia replaced the Kingdom. Institutions of the Kingdom The Kingdom went through various phases of evolution, from Darntus I to Cecil, with a mostly gradual evolution from absolute monarchy to a bureaucratic class system. Ministers of the Kingdom The institution of a monarch having a Royal Minister goes back to the Narikaton city-states era, when most of the city-states had both a noble ruler, and either an individual or a small council of nobles to handle the lesser details of governance. The father of Darntus the Flying, Danton Dernaton Darntus, was Prime Minister of Torchvan under Anton Strommdor, as a relatively well known example. Even Darntus himself took a Royal Minister from House Af Equidis. The various Dukes also took ministers, known as Prime Ministers, and Counts and Earls took ministers whose titles varied, but are generally translated as Second Ministers (due to their simultaneous subordination to the Prime Minister of their duchy). At the Barony level, the primary assistant was normally titled Sheriff. These Ministries served both as a kingdom management caste, and as a useful place for "extra" descendants, who could not inherit their father's titles because of the precedence of another son. Placement as Royal or even Prime Minister could significantly improve the fortunes of the noble houses they belonged to, as the position was essentially the heart of court politics. By the time of Darntus III, it had become common for these chief Ministers to take assistants of their own. Most of these came from the intermediate "Gentleman" class, and were the highest positions non-nobles could aspire to. Hierarchies developed, often highly complex, but in general ministries fell into levels, as measured by how many intermediate steps existed between themselves and their liege lord. A Ducal Prime Minister was considered equal in precedence to the first tier of assistants to the Royal Minister. Similarly, a County Second Minister was ranked equally to the assistants of a Ducal Prime Minister. The House of Lords Literally translated as the Council of Noble House Leaders, the House of Lords was Darnussia's quasi-legislative branch of government, starting with the death of Darntus the Flying. Its origins traced back to a similar Narikaton council which had initially given Darntus his authority, and it reserved the final authority to name the successors to the throne, although its actual ability to do so varied greatly. Its main role was to arbitrate between claimants of equal status, such as from amongst the group of the previous King's sons, to choose a new King; the goal was to reduce the trend of fratricide amongst the higher echelons of the nobility; a goal it was only partially successful in achieving. Originally, the house met as the heads of each recognized noble house. As the various house's powers varied, however, it gradually became a bit more representative, as the heads of each Duchy, then each Earldom and County, and ultimately each Barony, gained some representation. As it did so, it also gained gradually increasing powers to set national standards and priorities on taxation and other parts of law, although the King retained an absolute veto over these matters until 1966. Castes Darnussia under the Kingdom had, essentially, five castes; Royalty, Nobility, Gentlemen, Peasants, and Slaves. At the top was the Royalty, generally consisting of anyone who was a second cousin, or closer to any King of Darnussia, past or present. A member of the Royalty was socially privileged, even above the rest of the Nobility, but membership in the Royalty was, by definition, also membership as a Noble. The Nobility was made up of any person who was a direct member of one of the Noble Houses, at least in theory. In practice, the Nobility only consisted of first cousins (or better) of Barons, and second cousins (or better) of higher ranking Nobles - those more distantly related essentially fell out of the caste, as fewer and fewer other nobles would recognize such a cousin as one of their own. Nobility was defined almost exclusively by blood; only a descendant of two nobles could himself also be noble. There were some limited exceptions, such as the status of the illegitimate children of certain high ranking nobles and royals, who held a quasi-noble status if they were recognized, and their children by 'true' noble would be considered noble. In general, however, the product of a union between a noble and any commoner was a commoner. Gentleman, or freeman, status could be attained by either blood or by conduct - a man could be born a slave and die a gentleman of near-noble status, in some circumstances. The son of any Noble by any non-noble was a gentleman, as was the product a gentleman with the daughter of another gentleman. Lower ranking persons could also achieve a 'promotion' within their lifetimes, bestowed upon them by a ruling noble (Baron or better) for various reasons; most commonly, for military service. It was common for peasants who had demonstrated bravery and competence as a soldier or sailor, to be rewarded with a military promotion to Sergeant (army) or Sailor (navy), which was considered to simultaneously confer a gentleman's status on the recipient. Gentlemen had particular rights not shared with the lower castes, including the rights to become a government minister (up to the first assistant's level), to achieve higher military ranks, up to Captain (and thus to command nobles on the battlefield, in some rarer circumstances), and to enter into binding contracts with each other and with nobles. Importantly, this last right meant that they could, in theory, own land; a theoretical right that began to become actual by 1300. Gentlemen could also be knighted, which conferred a non-hereditary noble status on the honoree. Peasants and Slaves differed in two key respects; First, a peasant was expected to pay rent, for the privilege of working his Baron's land, and second, a peasant had the right to leave the Barony he was held in. Slaves had neither the duty to pay rent, nor the right to leave. Slavery was seldom a lifetime status, however; it was most often a status met as punishment for a variety of crimes, mainly indebtedness, and it was set either for a term of years, or for an amount of debt. The child of a slave was, technically, not a slave - and therefore slavery was not a hereditary status. In practice, however, there were cases of families who were slaves for more than five generations, in parts of the Kingdom. Evolution of the Castes When industrialization arrived in Darnussia, the importance of cities grew rapidly, and the relative importance of working the land shrank. This began a subtle shift in power to the Gentlemen class, as they dominated the merchant classes of the nation. Peasantry gradually faded, as nobles were forced to grant greater rights to peasants to have them remain on the farms, rather than watch them freely travel for industrial jobs in the cities. For a time, slavery grew rapidly, as some of the cities used the sale of slaves to farming baronies as a revenue generator, and thus had great incentive to impose burdensome and complex laws on city dwellers of the peasantry class. The proliferation of rights in both the working-class peasants and proto-middle-class gentlemen led to a political shift in the Kingdom, eroding the nobility's lock on power, and ultimately leading a gradual increase in democratic ideas, starting with elected town councils and ultimately leading to a true Parliament, and finally the end of the monarchy itself. Category:Former countries